Checking In

Well, it’s been several days since I returned home from the Chocolate and Chat Rocky Mountain Road Tour, so I figure it’s time to blog again. Whew! I was beat! It’s amazing how tiring driving and talking and eating chocolate can be. All in all, it was an awesome trip and I had the time of my life. This is mostly due to my awesome writing-buddy, kc dyer. Do check out her blog here.

Now, it’s back to regular life. This summer I plan on finishing a few works in project that have been haunting my hard drive for several years. They are ghosts that need to be set free, and I’m a little excited to do so. They are quite different from what I usually write. One is historical fiction, another is high fantasy, and the final is a middle grade contemporary novel. No vampyres, no werewulves. No old-English spelling for words.

Of course, there’s more work than that ahead. I still have an online CWC course to teach throughout the summer, a contest to judge and, tomorrow, a presentation to give for Susan Juby’s UBC class. The last time I presented at Susan’s class I’ll admit I felt terribly inadequate, but now I’m feeling rather excited. Things have changed for me, quite drastically, over the last couple of years. I now look at presentations as the chance to connect with other writers who also have a love of Teen Lit.

Sounds like a summer full of work, you say? No worries. My mother is coming this week from Winnipeg for a visit, and we’ll both be tourists in my adopted home-town. A visit to Whistler, Fort Langley, Granville Island (via the water taxi!) and whatever else we can think of, will fill my days for the next two weeks. That’ll be my “play” time. Then, it’ll be back to the pen and paper for me.

One of the problems (not that it’s a huge problem, or a terrible one,) of becoming an author, is that my hobby (writing) has become my job. So while I have eight weeks set aside for nothing more than finishing off my projects, don’t feel sorry for me. I’m not so much a workaholic as I am a very lucky guy who gets paid for doing what he does for fun.